


Divide and Conquer

by caffeine-vaccine (HashtagLEH)



Series: Tactics From the Isle (And How They Carry Over Into Auradon) [5]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies), The Isle of the Lost Series - Melissa de la Cruz
Genre: Auradon Prep (Disney), Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, Nice Audrey Rose (Disney), Protective Mal (Disney), United States of Auradon (Disney)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:08:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22689766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagLEH/pseuds/caffeine-vaccine
Summary: “There’s got to be a mistake,” Evie breathed, stammering a bit as she met Fairy Godmother’s eyes with her own widened ones. “Why are we all separated?”Fairy Godmother looked sympathetic, but unwavering. “Oh, dears – there’s no need to be nervous. Everyone will be very nice to you! And this way, you have the opportunity to make some new friends. I’m sure you’ll all surprise yourselves!”
Relationships: Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil, Mal & Audrey Rose (Disney), pre- Ben/Evie/Jay/Mal/Carlos de Vil
Series: Tactics From the Isle (And How They Carry Over Into Auradon) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600366
Comments: 7
Kudos: 264





	Divide and Conquer

**Author's Note:**

> This was going to be just Mal tentatively thinking that maybe Audrey isn't so bad, but then I thought I should flesh out some other characters a bit more so we get to see everyone's first day. At least, that's the plan now. We will see if that changes, lol.
> 
> Also, I don't know if it's been all too clear so far, but I've kinda stretched out the timeline a bit. In this one, they know that the wand is at the museum but they haven't gone to try to steal it at this point, because they realized it would take way more time than they've had so far. They're just watching at this point to see if and when an opportune time comes up that a) they CAN steal it, and b) at that point they're prepared to take over Auradon.
> 
> Also, I'm shoving Ben's coronation toward the end of term. Because reasons. You'll see later, haha. ;)
> 
> Let me know how you like it!

Their first class was Goodness 101, which was admittedly pretty insulting. They were also the only students in the class, because they were the only ones who needed it, because Auradon kids had their parents to teach them this crap growing up, while the nasty kids from the Isle only had Villains’ examples to learn from.

But the thing was, they knew how to be good. In theory, at least. Because the Isle encouraged bad behavior, and punished Good behavior with more vehemence and cruelty than the four of them were certain the Heroes treated bad behavior. They were willing to bet their newfound freedom on that.

So, it wasn’t that they didn’t know _how_ to be Good, and the questions Fairy Godmother quizzed them on were so easy and obvious that they were all immediately bored. The problem was that it would require curbing years of instinct after cruelty not to immediately choose the worst-sounding option.

But, where they had their first class together, they had all foolishly assumed that the rest of the day would go that way. But when Fairy Godmother had given them their schedules for the rest of their day at the end of class, they were all dismayed to discover that they would all then be separated for the rest of the day, except for lunch, which was with the entire school.

“There’s got to be a mistake,” Evie breathed, stammering a bit as she met Fairy Godmother’s eyes with her own widened ones. “Why are we all separated?”

Fairy Godmother looked sympathetic, but unwavering. “Oh, dears – there’s no need to be nervous. Everyone will be very nice to you! And this way, you have the opportunity to make some new friends. I’m sure you’ll all surprise yourselves!”

And it was with this that she ushered them out the door, urging them to make their way to their classes. It was her prep period, and she needed every minute of it to be able to make it that day.

Door closed behind them, they all stared at each other, none willing to admit to their nervousness first but all of them well aware of it in each other.

“Well, don’t think of it as safety in numbers,” Mal finally said, taking charge as their leader. “Think of it as divide and conquer.”

They all breathed a little easier with this shift in mentality, and Carlos said, “They all have electronic devices that let them talk to each other when they’re not there. We need to get some of those so that we can reach each other in case of emergency. They’re like phones, but you can carry them in your pocket.”

“Well, if it’s a bad emergency, just make an explosion somewhere,” Mal smirked. “All of us will follow.”

“You should ask Prince Ben about getting us with at least one other of us in our classes through the day,” Evie told her. “I understand they want us to make friends, but surely one class with someone else wouldn’t hurt?”

Mal nodded in agreement, but then demanded, “Why me? Why not just the next person to see him?”

Evie smirked and giggled at her. “Because he _obviously_ likes you the most, silly,” she chided. “Did you not notice that he always gravitates to you, or were you just deciding to ignore it?”

“Shut up,” Mal mumbled, shoving her lightly in the side. “At least it will be useful to play him, if it comes to that in the future. But yeah, I’ll ask him. I’ll ask him about the handheld phones, too; Carlos, I know you could probably figure out how to make them for us, but it would just be faster to get them from Ben right now, and I think that will be better because our first little bit here is likely to be the worst.”

Carlos nodded in agreement, hitching his backpack higher on his shoulder when it began to slip. “We should get to class,” he said. “Too much longer and we won’t be able to pick our own seats.”

“Bad luck,” Jay wished them all, and they left for opposite classrooms.

***

Mal’s first class was Geometry, which she immediately knew was not going to be a good class when she saw the slight frown the teacher gave her when he thought she wasn’t looking. It was clear that he was one of the people who did not agree with the Proclamation that brought the four of them from the Isle.

But she was pretty used to people not liking her – even on the Isle Villains had their enemies – so she didn’t pay it too much heed. It just sucked because she already didn’t like math and now it was going to be even worse with the teacher targeting her every day.

She sat down on the side of the room closest to the door, but in the back where she could see everyone. That way if she needed to escape in the middle she would be able to, but she didn’t have to worry about the possibility of someone sneaking up behind her. She leaned back in the chair, throwing her legs up on the desk and crossing them at the ankles, ignoring the pointed look the teacher gave her. If the teacher wanted her to do something she was going to have to use her words, but until then Mal was happy enough to cause trouble as much as she could, even in the small things.

She had only been seated for mere moments when Audrey entered, another girl beside her. They were chatting and laughing about something – Mal didn’t really care what, but they stopped when they saw her looking at them.

The girl with Audrey looked a little nervous, but Audrey – to Mal’s surprise – actually _smiled_ at her and moved to make her way over to Mal.

“Hey!” Audrey chirped, dropping daintily – like a princess, Mal scorned mentally – into the desk beside her. The girl with her sat down more slowly, hesitating while watching Mal, like she expected her to bite. Mal fought the urge to smirk; the fear was like being on the Isle, but so much sweeter, because it was someone new. Someone defenseless.

“What are you doing?” Mal drawled, dragging her eyes over to Audrey and giving her a casual once-over. (It wasn’t really casual, because she gave once-overs without the other person knowing about it, but it was rather a deliberate act to let the other person _know_ that they were being evaluated. It was a nice little intimidation tactic she’d learned as a child, one to let the other know that they were found lacking.)

Audrey blinked at her in affected cluelessness. “Geometry?” she said it like it was a question. “How funny, that we’re in the same class so soon!” She gave her a friendly smile to accompany the words; Mal didn’t trust it a single bit.

“And why would you sit next to the big bad Villain Kid?” Mal said, raising a single eyebrow in her direction. “If you’re going to try to punish me for the whole ‘attempting world domination’ thing…”

“No!” Audrey cut her off immediately, looking appalled at Mal’s suggestion. Her eyes were wide and horrified – the very picture of denial, which made Mal suspicious more than it reassured her.

“I would _never_ do that,” Audrey denied. “Besides, it wasn’t even _you_ – you weren’t even born!”

“But I was raised by the one who _did_ do it,” Mal said, feeling herself getting upset, but she wasn’t totally sure why. She immediately shoved the feeling away, ignoring it for now. “So I know all of Maleficent’s tricks by now.” (Not really, but Audrey didn’t need to know that her mother didn’t think she would ever measure up to her own evil.) “So how can you be certain that I’m not going to try to do the same thing _she_ did?”

“You’re not a fairy,” the girl next to Audrey said, sounding unsure. “It wouldn’t be possible for you to do the same things your mom did.”

Mal blinked, stunned momentarily by this girl’s naïveté. Is that really what they thought? That without magic, they couldn’t be Evil? Oh boy, Auradon really _was_ clueless. Not to mention _way_ too complacent.

“Interesting,” Mal murmured, fixing the other girl with her gaze, making her look suddenly about ten times more alarmed.

But Mal didn’t explain herself or her comment, now bored with the conversation and turning to take her sketchbook out of her bag. It was new – Carlos had somehow scrounged it up after their arrival, though he promised that it hadn’t been stolen from anyone. (Of course, it might have been stolen from the school bookstore, but that didn’t really count as ‘anyone’.) She was excited for the possibility of drawing on actual, _clean_ paper for the first time ever.

“Miss Le Fey,” the teacher called suddenly, drawing her attention to the front of the room where the teacher stood with the roll in her hand. “Please consort yourself as someone ready to learn and remove your feet from the desk.”

Mal sighed indolently and dropped her boot-clad feet to the ground, though she still sat in a somewhat sprawled, lazy position that let everyone know that she didn’t want to be there. The teacher didn’t say anything to that though, only fixing her with a stare before seeming to realize that she wasn’t going to get any further with her and turned to start the lesson.

“Well, Mal,” Audrey whispered, leaning over and sounding certain as Mal allowed for her attention to be reluctantly drawn back to the persistent princess, “I trust you. I don’t think you’re going to try to get any revenge and take over the world.”

Mal stared at the girl, at the open, trusting expression on her face, and felt something in her chest twist. She thought that Audrey might actually be…genuine. And that trust was very strange, however misplaced it may be, because Mal _certainly_ had plans to take over the world…though they were definitely different from what her mother’s plans had been. But still – she had no intention of following Prince Beast quietly into reform for the country. She was _very_ prepared to take this country by force.

She opened her mouth to respond to Audrey, still not sure what she was going to say but feeling like she should treat this declaration of trust with some kind of attention.

“Miss Le Fey!” the teacher rapped before a sound could escape her throat, and Mal’s attention snapped to the front of the room at the harsh tone, thinking for a moment that she was back in class on the Isle before she blinked and forced herself back to the present. She wasn’t a child about to be beaten for lack of attention – she was _pretty_ sure they didn’t do that here. “No whispering in class – pay attention!”

 _Sorry_ , Audrey mouthed at her, looking honestly apologetic at having gotten her in trouble. Mal didn’t care though – this teacher clearly had it out for her, and would’ve found _something_ to scold her about before too long, her fault or not.

She sort of paid attention through class…but mostly she continued to think about Audrey’s trust in the Villain Kids. Maybe there wasn’t no hope for them here after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I seem to remember Maleficent's last name being Le Fey, but when I Googled it to be sure, I couldn't find anything about ANY last name. So...I just stuck with what I thought I knew, even if now I'm doubting it lol. o.O


End file.
